Simple Planning Will Make The Perfect Plate
When it comes to Christmas day, most of us would like to be able to sit down and enjoy a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings! But with the increasing costs of living, together with the popularity of 'grow your own' food – studies showed in 2022 that over a third of people living in the UK grew their own food – it’s a good idea to plan ahead and make sure that, with the exception of the turkey and the pigs-in-blankets, we could grow everything else we would need to fill our Christmas plate. But before we help you to get the planning right, lets take a look at what we would describe as a traditional Christmas dinner in the UK.
The Perfect Christmas Dinner Plate
In the UK turkey, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings are still a must, whilst research carried out in 2022 showed that the top five vegetables to accompany these would be:
- Brussel sprouts (20%)
- Broccoli (15%)
- Carrots (15%)
- Parsnips (14%)
- Peas (9%).
Other vegetables which might appear on the plate could include mashed potatoes, cauliflower, whilst we are also likely to find room for some stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, mint sauce and of course, lashings of gravy.
So let’s take a look at what we could grow ourselves rather than rely on the supermarket to provide us with – remembering that home grown always seems to taste better than shop bought!
Grow Your Own For The Christmas Dinner Plate:
So if you are lucky enough to have an allotment or a kitchen garden here are our suggestions as to what to grow . . . and when to grow . . . and if you only have a patio, balcony or windowsill, we will also let you know what you could be growing to add to your dinner plate as well.
In order of popularity:
Grow Your Own Potatoes
Research has shown that the classic roast potato – we recommend slightly smashing them before sprinkling with rosemary and salt before roasting – is one of the most popular items on the Christmas dinner plate, with over 57% of the British public saying they couldn’t imagine Christmas dinner without them!
When you have an allotment growing potatoes is a must, you can grow them in a kitchen garden, you can even grow them in tubs and planters so you don’t need a garden at all! The varieties which the RHS recommend growing for a Christmas harvest – and make good roasters too – include Maris Piper, Nicola (good for roasting if you part boil them first) and Charlotte (often seen in recipes roasted with rosemary and garlic).
For a Christmas harvest you might find it easier to plant them in pots and keep them in a greenhouse or polytunnel, planting them in late August / September, removing their foliage in late Autumn and leaving the tubers in their compost until you need them for Christmas dinner.
Grow Your Own Brussel Sprouts
Appearing to divide the British nation – you either love ‘em or hate ‘em – research actually shows that people in the UK eat more Brussel sprouts than any other nation in Europe, eating a whopping 40,000 tonnes a year!
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Ideally to grow your own sprouts for the Christmas plate you will need to start in the Autumn of the previous year to the Christmas you want to eat them – getting the ground ready – then sow them in the February in your greenhouse ready to transfer into your garden early May. You should be able to begin harvesting from September onwards, through to the following March, harvesting the buttons once they reach 2 to 3 cm in diameter. |
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Please don’t be tempted when harvesting to simply cut the whole stem off at the root and then remove all the sprouts – you sometimes see stems of sprouts for sale, but you really don’t get the best, tastiest sprouts when you do that as they ripen from the base of the stem upwards. You are best to harvest individual sprout buttons as they grow big enough to harvest – so a few from each plant.
Grow Your Own Broccoli
Appearing on approx. 20% of Christmas dinner plates, when it comes to broccoli all may not be as it appears! This so called ‘superfood’ packed full of vitamins, minerals, and fibre, low in fat and high in water, has so many benefits that there seems no reason not to grow it yourself.
But did you know that the gorgeous, green headed vegetable we see in the supermarkets’ labelled ‘broccoli’ is usually its relative calabrese. Two varieties of the same vegetable, calabrese has a much faster maturing rate to broccoli, which makes it easier for supermarkets to stock it all year round.
Unfortunately we haven’t been able to source a variety of calabrese which you could harvest in the UK in December for your dinner plate – latest harvest times appears to be October as the green heads which we eat are easily damaged by colder conditions. So if you want to grow your own, it could well be a case of having to freeze your harvest until the big day arrives. For this reason only, broccoli / calabrese, may not be appearing on our ‘grow your own’ Christmas dinner menu!
Grow Your Own Carrots
Carrots not only add flavour to your Christmas dinner, but they also bring with them a splash of colour! They can be prepared in lots of different ways, so depending on your preference, they could be boiled or roasted – many Christmas kitchens will see them roasted in a sticky sweet marinade made from honey or maple syrup.
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Although we typically think of carrots as being orange in colour, they only acquired their classic orange colour in the 17th century – prior to this date they were purple or yellow. With the increase in growing your own, gardeners now seem to be growing a wide range of colours, including purple, red, white, yellow, and still orange. |
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All the different colours do taste slightly different from the classic orange – white tends to be mild, yellow have an earthy, sweet flavour, whilst purple carrots have a sweet peppery flavour.
Carrot seeds can be sown from early Spring right through until late August, which means that with the correct planning you could be harvesting carrots fresh from the ground just a couple of days before Christmas day. But if you don’t get the timing right and your carrots are ready to harvest early, don’t worry, there are lots of ways in which you can store them – without freezing – to ensure you have tasty carrots on your Christmas plate.
Did You Know?
22 billion carrot seeds are sown each year in Britain, producing approx. 100 carrots per year for every member of the population . . . with the sales value of British carrots being around £290 million.
Grow Your Own Parsnips
When we think of parsnips on our Christmas menu, we are usually imagining delicious roast parsnips to add an extra taste and texture to our dinner plate.
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Although easy to grow, and requiring very little maintenance, parsnips do have a long growing season, so you are best to sow varieties such as Gladiator, Picador or Albion in April if you want to have them fresh on your Christmas dinner plate. Ideally grown in the ground – so in your garden or at your allotment – this is only as they have such long roots. So if you did want to grow them in a container or raised bed it needs to be particularly deep – you will even find some gardeners growing them in spare dustbins!! |
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Basically your container would need to be two to three times the finished length of a mature parsnip. Sown outdoors, parsnip seeds are notoriously slow to germinate and depending on the weather conditions can take up to 30 days before they appear, so make sure they are well labelled when sown.
Top Tip
It’s not just an urban myth, some vegetables do taste better if harvested after frost! This is because when the temperature drops below freezing certain plants will produce more sugar. And as a result they taste sweeter. This happens with many root crops, such as parsnips, carrots, turnips as well as some leaf and stem crops including Brussel sprouts, kale and leeks.
Grow Your Own Peas
The popularity of peas in the UK can be illustrated by the fact that on average, each person in Britain eats nearly 9,000 peas per year, with 5 tablespoons of peas appearing on the perfect Christmas dinner plate (according to the bbc good food website).
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When thinking about growing your own garden peas for your Christmas dinner even though you could sow them late in the year – so as late as June or July – these are still going to be ready to harvest by September through to October. So it’s going to be a case of growing, harvesting, blanching and freezing the peas so you can enjoy them on your Christmas plate. |
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Additional Information
‘Blanching’ is basically the process where peas are placed in boiling water for about 90 seconds, then plunged into ice cold water before freezing. What this does is remove certain enzymes from the peas which would otherwise cause the peas to start to rot, discolour and taste ‘off’. Although peas can be frozen without blanching, if you want to be able to use them after 8 weeks then carrying out this process is essential.
It's this inability to harvest and eat fresh in December which might put you off going to the effort of growing your own peas if your only aim was to have the perfect Christmas plate. However, peas are so good for us and the fact that to retain their nutritional benefits the best way is to eat them raw, straight from the pod, we are always going to be growing peas at our allotment!
Grow Your Own Red Cabbage
An essential side dish on any traditional Christmas dinner table, red cabbage is really easy to prepare as an accompaniment to roast turkey. Braised red cabbage recipes abound from famous chefs such as Delia Smith, Mary Berry, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson and with its glorious colour, texture and sweetness it really helps to balance out a hearty Christmas plate.
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To grow your own red cabbage for Christmas dinner requires you to sow an autumn / winter red cabbage variety in May or June so that you can be harvesting into December. So when selecting your seeds choose varieties like Red Rovite or the heritage variety Red Drumhead which dates back to 1860. |
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Grow Your Own Cranberries
Not your typical crop for the UK grower, these are easier to raise by purchasing a rooted cutting or small plant – growing from seed could take you up to five years until you have a healthy harvest, from a small plant it’s more likely to take three years before you get the best berries fit to turn into cranberry sauce.
So if you have the patience – and the time – to plan three years in advance then cranberries are good to grow as they provide you with an attractive, evergreen plant with bright red berries when they are ready to harvest. They are also ideal for growing in a container, raised bed or even a hanging basket, so for those without a ‘garden’ these will be quite happy in a courtyard, on a patio or balcony.
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Cranberries are ready to harvest from September through to early November so you would need to prepare your cranberry sauce and freeze it ready for the big day – it will stay fresh tasting in your freezer for about 1 month. This also makes it a lovely homemade gift to take to someone’s house if you are eating with them on Christmas day! |
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Our posts are created from our personal knowledge, information gathered by speaking to other gardeners or manufacturers in the gardening industry, by reading gardening magazines and devouring information from books and the internet. We aim to be as accurate as we can, so if you find a mistake, please remember, we’re only human. if you have any queries you can contact us today!